Friday, April 23, 2010

You have to give him credit for initiative.

OTTAWA—The director of a solar power company says he had no idea the firm co-founded by ex-MP Rahim Jaffer tried to get federal money for one of its projects from a billion-dollar green infrastructure fund.

“I was as shocked as anybody this morning when I . . . found out that our company was listed on what was being described as a proposal,” said former Liberal MP Joe Louis Jordan, who is a director of a company run by his brother, Michael Jordan, called Upper Canada Solar Generation Ltd.

The Star obtained summaries of three proposals for projects worth a total of $850 million that Green Power Generation Corp. – co-founded by Jaffer and his business partner Patrick Glémaud – submitted to Conservative MP Brian Jean, the parliamentary secretary to Transport Minister John Baird.

The proposals sought federal money from the $1-billion Green Infrastructure Fund for three alternative energy projects – a 10-megawatt solar power generating facility, panels on highways and bridges and an environmentally friendly waste disposal solution – that were ultimately rejected.

One of the proposals involves a request for $15 million from the federal government for the first phase of a solar power generating facility in Brockville, Ont., and listed the project stakeholders as Upper Canada Solar Generation Ltd. and Canadian Solar Inc. based in Kitchener, Ont.

Both companies say they did not give Green Power Generation permission to lobby the federal government on their behalf...

Alex Taylor, director of investor relations and special projects for Canadian Solar Inc. denied any lobbying relationship with Green Power Generation.

“My understanding is that Green Power is either a project being proposed by Rahim Jaffer and Patrick Glemaud or a company owned by them, or both,” he said in an email from China.

“We have not authorized either of these gentlemen to act on our behalf or to represent us either in a capacity as lobbyists or in any other matter.”

If you're a legitimate businessman who suddenly feels an overpowering urge to push Rahim Jaffer under a bus, the line starts over there on the left.